Edo was the sword’s age of connoisseurship: the Hon’ami appraisers, the shogunal register of famous blades of 1719, and a thriving literature turned the sword into an object of study even as it ceased to be drawn in war.
NihontoWatchNihontoWatchIppo(一峯) is a renowned swordsmith who belonged to Omi Ishido school during the early Edo period. There are two generations of the smith named Ippo. We believe the first-gen forged it based on the signature. The first-gen Ippo was born in Takagi village in Omi province(Today’s Shiga prefecture). While the first-gen Ippo forged swords in Omi province for the rest of his life, his son, second-gen Ippo, also forged in Edo city(Today’s Tokyo). The first-gen Ippo was active at sword-forging at the beginning of the Edo period(1648-1652). Ishido school was initially founded by Sukenaga, an offspring of Ichimonji Sukemune, who made Fukuoka Ichimonji school in Bizen province(Today’s Okayama prefecture). During 1492-1501(Mid Muromachi period), Sukenaga and his school moved to Omi province from Bizen province after being summoned by Gamou family, a powerful feudal line in that region. Sukenaga started to live in front of Ishido temple, and he changed his surname to Ishido. As of the early Edo period, many Ishido swordsmiths moved to other parts of Japan. There are mainly four areas: Edo, Osaka, Kishu(Wakayama prefecture), and Chikuzen(Fukuoka prefecture). Omi Ishido school is the origin of whole other Ishido branches that flourished during the Edo period. This blade is appraised as a Tokubetsu Hozon Token(特別保存刀剣) issued by NBTHK(Nihon Bijutsu Touken Hozon Kyokai:日本美術刀剣保存協会). Fuchi-Kashira Different types of birds are engraved for this Fuchi Kashira. Some birds are taking a rest, and the other is walking in the glasses. Although some parts have already been flaked off due to aging, it seems gold-colored metal was applied to this work. In contrast to other sword mountings of this sword (the fantasy beast: dragon motif in this case), this Fuchi Kashira’s design depicts a landscape that we could see in daily life. We hope you would also enjoy this contrasting expression. About the dragon motif, please check the following explications about the Menuki and the Tsuba. Tsuka and Menuki Dragons are designed for this Menuki. Initially, the dragon is an imaginary creature found in ancient traditions or myths. Furthermore, it is regarded as a symbolic beast of auspicious signs. Its body is likened to nine animals: antlers are deer, the head is a camel, eyes are demons, the neck is a snake, belly is Mizuchi (蛟, mythical animal in Japan which looks like a snake and have a horn and four legs), scales are fish, claws are falcons, palms are tigers, and ears are cows. It was thought that the dragon would reign at the top of all animals because of its odd-looking appearance. Please look at the lower Menuki. If you focus on the dragon’s hand, you will notice that it brings the small ball. A theory says that this ball is the Nyoi Houju (如意宝珠, Cintāmaṇi). It is a fantasy jewel that fulfills any desire, gives out treasure, clothes, food, and drink. In addition, it heals illness and suffering, removes evils, purifies muddy water, and prevents disasters. It is said this magical item is taken from the brain of the king of the dragon. Such a detailed expression tells us how the dragon design was favored as an auspicious pattern. Tsuba and Habaki This antique Tsuba has a circle shape, and it remains its glossy black color. Same as the Menuki, this Tsuba’s motif is also the dragon. The dragon twists its elongated body, and clouds surround it. The combination of dragon and cloud patterns is often seen as a motif for sword mountings. It might be due to a traditional belief in Japan. The Ryujin Shinkou (竜神信仰) is a faith that worships dragon as a water god. Since rice cultivation flourished in this country, water is always an essential resource. Therefore, the dragon motif has been familiar to Japanese people since a long time ago. Now, please remember that what clouds do; clouds bring blessed rain. People would have thought that the combination of this sacred animal and the clouds would give them God’s blessing. Authentication Paper They authenticated the blade on April 2nd in the 11th year of Heisei(1999). They appraised it as Tokubetsu Hozon Touken, the blade especially worth preserving for Japanese society.
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Shinto · Omi · around 1648-1652
Tōken Taikan top 60%
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Shinto · Omi
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The Ishido school (石堂) traces its root to Omi Province, where smiths surnamed Hioki and bearing names such as Ishido worked before the line dispersed across the country in the early Edo period. From that Omi stem grew four principal branches: the Fukuoka Ishido of Chikuzen, the Edo Ishido carried east by makers who had first gone up from Omi to Kyoto, the Osaka Ishido seeded by smiths who settled in the merchant city, and the Kishu Ishido working under the Kii daimyo. What bound these scattered workshops was a single, deliberate program: the recovery of the choji-midare of the old Ichimonji and Ko-Bizen, complete with the utsuri that the medieval Bizen masters had carried in their steel. The school's very name records this revival as a historical project rather than an imitation, for its smiths set out to recover the bright, reflection-bearing Bizen jigane that most shinto makers of the seventeenth century could no longer produce. Korekazu, Tsunemitsu, Moritsugu, and Tameyasu stand among the names by which the branches are known, alongside Bicchu no Kami Yasuhiro, who bridged the Kishu and Osaka lines, and Tatara Nagayuki of Osaka. The shared vocabulary of the school begins with the temper. Over a tightly forged itame, often a well-packed ko-itame mixing mokume and a little nagare-hada, the Ishido smiths cut a choji-midare crowded with double-flower juka-choji, fukuro-choji, large and small choji, gunome, and pointed elements, so the line shows pronounced height as it crests and falls. Ashi and yo enter in profusion, the work turning nioi-dominant with attached ko-nie, sunagashi running through and kinsuji appearing here and there. Beneath sits the surer half of the recognition: a well-forged itame carrying ji-nie in minute particles, across which stands a midare-utsuri.
Utsuri on a new-sword blade is rare and deliberate, and its recovery was the school's whole purpose, so a flamboyant choji standing over a clear irregular reflection is the first thing that separates an Ishido blade from any other shinto choji. The published sources name the school's two Bizen models directly: the Ichimonji-copy choji-midare and the Sue-Bizen-copy gunome with an opened lower contour, both worked in nioi-deki. Within these constants the branches diverge. Tsunemitsu of the Edo group holds his bright, height-varied juka-choji over a vividly standing reflection across every blade on record; Yasuhiro of the Kishu and Osaka lines tells himself by a saka-gokoro, a reverse slant in the choji and ashi most marked in his early work, and by the chrysanthemum crest of his titled years; Nagayuki of Osaka, reckoned the leading Bizen-den hand among the shinto makers, divides cleanly between his Ichimonji choji and a gunome modeled on Yosazaemon no Jo Sukesada, the boshi entering midare-komi, pointed at the tip, and turning back deeply. To kantei an Ishido blade is to read revived Bizen choji on a shinto ground: the flamboyant clove temper above, the midare-utsuri standing below, but a jigane whose nie and forging belong unmistakably to the new-sword period rather than to any true koto reflection. The recurring verdict the judges return to is that the best work recalls the old Ichimonji of classical times, brought vividly to mind by Tsunemitsu's Edo pieces in particular. Among the school's members the first-rank names carry the recognition: Korekazu and his fellows of the Fukuoka and Edo branches, Tsunemitsu by his standing utsuri and juka-choji, Yasuhiro at the junction of two branches, and Nagayuki at the head of the Bizen-den shinto hands. Provenance attaches to a portion of the school's record; Yasuhiro's broad pre-title wakizashi was transmitted in the Shimazu house of Satsuma, and one of his katana is recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection, while much of the wider Ishido output sits in the Juyo tier, more often kept than traded. A securely signed Ishido blade, showing the bright clove over a standing reflection, remains the document of how a shinto school brought the old Ichimonji choji back to life. Learn more →
| Smith | Era | Designated |
|---|---|---|
| Tsunemitsu常光 | 1648-1661 | 7 |
| Yasuhiro安廣 | 1661-1673 | 3 |
| Nagatsugu長次 | 1681-1684 | 0 |
| Nagayoshi永吉 | 1688-1704 | 0 |
| Nagatsugu長次 | 1345-1350 | 0 |
The Edo period (1615 to 1868)
Edo was the sword’s age of connoisseurship: the Hon’ami appraisers, the shogunal register of famous blades of 1719, and a thriving literature turned the sword into an object of study even as it ceased to be drawn in war.
A Hozon-certified blade judged to show notably superior workmanship and a better state of preservation. The bar is higher: re-tempered blades and most unsigned Muromachi/Edo works are excluded.
The NBTHK (Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai, the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords) is a public-interest incorporated foundation founded in 1948 and supervised by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkachō); it is based at the Japanese Sword Museum in Tokyo. Its expert panels physically examine each submitted work (shinsa) and issue a certificate (kanteishō) ranking it by artistic and historical merit. NBTHK papers are the most widely recognized standard of authentication for Japanese swords and fittings.
NBTHK official siteReturns/exchanges limited to defects caused by shipping (except willful misconduct or gross negligence by the company); customers must contact within 72 hours of receiving the product.